


Ghosts

by Noruway



Series: Phobias [2]
Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Canon Compliant, Crying, Hopeful Ending, Language, Like a lot of language, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Qian Kun is a Good Friend, Ten is a good friend, Yuwin are having problems, mentioned johnten bc theyre long-distance couple goals, normalize platonic skinship between friends, ten & winwin are best friends, winwin is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noruway/pseuds/Noruway
Summary: In which Sicheng is hurting because of his long-distance boyfriend and takes it out on Ten, whose own relationship is, apparently, perfect.Sequel toHeights
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin & Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin & Qian Kun, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Nakamoto Yuta
Series: Phobias [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799212
Kudos: 70





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> It's not strictly necessary to understand, but I highly recommend reading Heights either before or after this one in oreder to get Yuta's perspective.

When Sicheng wakes up, it’s to a loud thumping coming from somewhere. He groans, burying his face deeper into his pillows and willing whatever that godforsaken noise is to stop. It takes him a while to figure out the noise is in his own head, the result of consuming too much alcohol the night before.

  


_ “Maybe you should slow down, Ge,” Yangyang points out, despite being on his fifth bottle of soju. Sicheng scowls at how the boy can remain so coherent, while his own mind is already fuzzy. _

  


_ “Maybe you should min’ your bus’ness,” he slurs, Wenzhou dialect making his sentence nearly intelligible to the other members. _

  


_ Ten, ever the concerned friend, gently removes the current bottle from Sicheng’s grip, and although Sicheng would usually appreciate the thoughtfulness, Ten is currently  _ not  _ someone he wants to interact with. Sicheng scowls, ripping the bottle back and downing the rest of its contents within seconds. _

  


_ “Nnnnnoooo,” he whines and ignores Ten’s shocked expression. “No, no, no, Tennie, no.” _

  


_ “Winwin?” _

  


“Sicheng?”

  


His headache subsides just the slightest bit, enough that he can see Kun poke his head into his room. The warm, cautious smile he gets is an indicator of just how badly he fucked up last night, and  _ god, _ Sicheng is not ready to face those consequences now that he has a nasty hangover.

  


The door clicks shut after Kun enters, and Sicheng can’t muster up the strength to turn away, instead watching silently as his bed dips with the weight of his friend.

  


“How are you feeling?” His voice is so soft, so kind, and Sicheng hates it. He hates the guilt that churns in his gut because, despite drinking himself into a sobbing mess, he still recalls every embarrassing moment of the previous night. Kun doesn’t mention it, but Sicheng can’t decide if that makes things better or worse.

  


“Kun-ge,” he croaks, trying and failing to back tears.

  


“Oh, no,  _ baby.”  _ Without a moment of hesitation, Kun raises Sicheng’s upper body and cradles it to his chest, petting his hair as he cries and apologizes through hiccups and sobs.

  


“I-I’m-m sor-ry, ‘m so- so  _ sorry,” _ he gasps, his breath stuttering and caught in his lungs.

  


“Shhhh, baby. It’s alright. I forgive you, okay?” Kun lifts his head and makes eye contact with Sicheng. It’s almost Pavlovian, really, how instantly Sicheng’s breathing evens out, his tears slowing at the sight of his warm and caring leader. “The other’s will understand about last night, too, okay? But...”

  


Sicheng feels his heart drop to the pit of his stomach, and Kun must notice his face paling, because he instantly offers another reassuring smile.

  


“You should really talk to Ten. He’s pretty upset, still.”

  


Sicheng swallows around the lump in his throat, fear and regret weighing heavily on his shoulders. “Yeah… I will.”

  


_ “What’s the matter with you, Win-ah?”  _

  


_ “Fuck you,” Sicheng spits, watching as Ten recoils at the words. Poorly masked rage blooms on his best friend’s face, but he doesn’t back down. He’s bottled everything up for far too long, and Ten has now become his outlet. _

  


_ “You don’ tell me what to do. Fuck you,” he slurs, growing more and more furious by the second. “Fuck you and your perfect fuckin’ relationship. Don’ even know how lucky you are, bastard. Got a perfect boyfffffriend to call you n’ kiss you n’ stuff. How come someone like  _ you _ gets to have love, but I don’t?” _

  


_ Kun wraps an arm around Ten’s shoulders before the other man can jump on Sicheng, leveling the latter with a stern gaze. Surprisingly, it’s Lucas who speaks up next. _

  


_ “But you have Yuta?” He phrases it as a question, and, well, isn’t that just so fitting? _

  


_ “Fuck him, too,” he declares, sincere hurt and anger simmering behind his drunken filter. “Cuts our calls short, don’t call for days, then gets mad when  _ I _ don’ pick up the phone? No. Fuck him.” _

  


_ “Sicheng, that’s enough,” Kun interjects, attempting to pull him to his feet. “I think you should get some sleep bef--” _

  


_ Kun hits the ground with a hard  _ thump. _ The rest of the members look on in disbelief, utterly shocked that Sicheng has just  _ shoved  _ their leader and eldest brother to the ground. Sicheng, himself, is horrified. _

  


_ A sudden, awful bout of nausea claws its way from his stomach to his throat, and he stumbles blindly from the living room to the bathroom, not stopping until he falls to his knees in front of the toilet. _

  


Sicheng falls to his knees in front of Ten, the latter not having moved since he opened the door to his room. Ten’s stony expression is so jarring and uncharacteristic, and Sicheng hates himself a little for being the cause of it.

  


“Tennie…” he chokes on a sob, and really, he’s getting tired of crying so much. He didn’t use to cry so much.

  


Ten sighs, though it sounds more exasperated than annoyed. Perhaps if Sicheng hadn’t been such a dick last night, his best friend would be rubbing his back and consoling him. “What, Sicheng?”

  


Sicheng flinches when Ten addresses him by his real name, instead of Winwin, Win-ah, Chengie— the lack of a pet name is unpleasant but not unexpected. Honestly, it’s the least of what Sicheng thinks he deserves. 

  


“ ‘m sorry, Tennie,” he whimpers, barely audible above the familiar rumbling of the air conditioner throughout the dorm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. You—  _ of course _ you deserve to be loved, I just-” Sicheng inhales, and he hopes Ten can see the sincerity in his gaze. “I’m an asshole,  _ god, _ ‘m the worst— worst friend. I’m so sorry, Tennie, ‘m  _ sorry.” _

  


Before any of the other members can witness his pathetic groveling, Ten’s gentle touch guides him to his feet and brings him into his room, remaining as an anchor until Sicheng is seated on the bed. Ten shuts his door before joining him.

  


His eyes are still guarded, the hurt from last night clearly having an effect on his attitude, but he stares at Sicheng with an expression that bears forgiveness.

  


“Why did you say those things?”

  


Sicheng gulps, unsure if he’s ready for this conversation. “I’m jealous,” he admits, suddenly finding his fingers to be very interesting, “of you and Johnny-hyung.”

  


Ten, for his part, appears only mildly surprised. “Me and Johnny?”

  


“Yeah, and it’s… I know it’s stupid, okay? But you guys just—” Sicheng purses his lips, finally lifting his eyes to meet Ten’s. “You guys make the long-distance thing look so easy, and it’s not easy for me.”

  


All traces of hurt have morphed into concern by this point, Sicheng can tell by the way Ten’s brows pull together. 

  


“You and Yuta… you guys are having problems.” It’s more of a statement than a question, but Sicheng nods anyways. “What’s going on?”

  


Just like that, the floodgates are open, and Sicheng spills everything that’s been stressing him out over the past months. They always circle back to Yuta.

  


“I don’t know what to do,” he rasps, his throat sore from crying too much in the past two days. “Before we left, everything was okay? I was scared, but Yuta seemed so— so confident at the airport. He said we’d make it. We’re supposed to make it. But as soon as I landed, I don’t know, it was like he’d changed his mind?” Sicheng hates himself more with each word, yet even now, he can’t find an ounce of resentment towards Yuta. He’s annoyed, because he wants to hate him but he  _ can’t. _

  


“He’ll barely stay on the phone with me for five minutes before he’s making some excuse to hang up. So I thought he must need space, right? But when I try to give him that, when I don’t call or just  _ miss _ one of his, he always— he gets  _ mad. _ And he doesn’t say anything about it, but I can just tell, you know? And I don’t know what to do because everything I do is  _ wrong.” _

  


“Oh, Win-ah,” Ten sighs, grabbing his hand and interlocking their fingers. Sicheng allows the small comfort, though he still feels heavy even after unloading all of that emotional weight.

  


“It’s nothing to do with you. Sometimes… things like this are bound to happen.”

  


The corners of his mouth pull down, and Sicheng can’t help the accusatory tone when he bites back, “Not to you and hyung.”

  


Ten nudges his shoulder in retaliation, but the action is more playful than anything.

  


“Not that you should be comparing your relationship with others’  _ anyways,” _ Ten emphasizes, shooting his best friend a pointed glare, “but, believe it or not, Johnny and I have actually gone through something similar.”

  


“Really?”

  


Ten hums in affirmation, nodding sagely at Sicheng’s dropped jaw. “We took entirely too long to get past it. God, too many weeks wasted on something that was, in the end, really insignificant.”

  


Sicheng chews his bottom lip, but Ten’s thumb instinctively comes up to tug it out. “How did you solve it?”

  


“Well, a lot of things happened leading up to it, but basically,” Ten pauses to ensure he has Sicheng’s full attention, “we talked, and we fought.” 

  


When Sicheng blanches, he continues. “I know how it sounds, but that’s what we had to do. We were a lot like you and Yuta, at first. Even though we called each other everyday, we thought we couldn’t tell each other whenever we got upset or stressed, and that lack of communication really hurt us because our worries and frustrations just kept building up. 

  


“Eventually, we had a big fight, but it ended up being for the better because we finally understood each other. Ever since then, we’ve communicated and been completely honest about our feelings.” 

  


Ten pats Sicheng’s cheek, wearing a soft grin that doesn’t quite fit with the rest of his sharp image.

  


“You should call Yuta and actually talk. Fight. Let yourself be angry and let him be angry, too. Things are gonna be okay, Chengie. You’ll see.”

  


_ “Everything’s gonna be okay, Winko,” Yuta whispers into his hair as they lay in their bed, the last time they’ll be together in their shared room. _

  


_ “How do you know?” _

  


_ “Because you’re the bravest, most awesome boyfriend in the world, and we’ll make it work.” _

  


_ Sicheng huffs out a disbelieving laugh, though he does feel a bit better. “Oh, yeah? And what about me exactly screams ‘brave’ to you?” _

  


_ Yuta’s chest vibrates with a hum, as if he actually has to think about it.  _

  


_ “You protect me from ghosts.” Sicheng ignores his boyfriend’s yelp of pain after he smacks him in the chest. “What? It’s true!” _

  


_ “Yuta, I cried watching  _ ThanksKilling. _ ” He shivers at the memory of objectively the worst horror movie to ever exist. And Sicheng still almost passed out from fear. _

  


_ His boyfriend just scoffs, as if Sicheng hadn’t destroyed his entire argument. “Yes, but no matter how afraid you are of evil spirits, they’re definitely much more scared of you. Have I told you about how my family home is haunted?” _

  


_ “Only about two-hundred times.” _

  


_ “Right. But ever since I’ve met you, I haven’t encountered a single ghost, ghoul, or goblin.” _

  


_ “Yuta—” _

  


_ “Therefore, you must have some protective charm around you. So as long as I keep a few of your shirts here, it’ll be like you never left, because they’ll ward off all the evil spirits.” _

  


_ “Oh my god, you’re so dumb.” _

  


_ “But you knew that, babe.” _

  


A couple of days later, when Sicheng gets an unexpected call from his boyfriend, he feels afraid. But he’s brave, Yuta had called him brave, and he’s ready to face what he’s been avoiding for so long as he slides his finger across the screen.

  


_ “Hello?” _ comes the voice from the other end of the line.

  


“Yuta.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! ^^/
> 
> So I've decided to make this into a little series, surprise! Right now I plan to write at least one more part where Yuwin make up, bc my heart is soft for them uwu
> 
> I'm sorry if anything is weird here, I don't have a beta or anything and I just said "fuck it" before posting it.
> 
> Thank you for reading! :D


End file.
